Review: Limited Edition Caramelized Onion Ritz Crackers

Hey there, So Good Readers! It’s your friendly neighborhood Junk Food Guy, and watching the MTV VMAs last night, I felt old. Old old old. First of all, I had no idea who anyone was, and the people who I *DID* recognize – well, I was sorry that I did (I’m looking at you, Miley Cyrus. *Smacks nose with rolled up newspaper* NO! NO! BAD CRAZY ASS POP STAR! NO!)

Thankfully, I was able to look away from the trainwreck that the VMAs usually are in order to enjoy some comfort food; or in this case, comfort snack….today’s junk food is Limited Edition Caramelized Onion Ritz Crackers!

I first clued in on Limited Edition Caramelized Onion Ritz Crackers by a Twitter friend, King Rhino. Now, I know that recently Ritz has been flavoring it up, with Garden Vegetable and Garlic Butter varieties, for example. I haven’t tried those, but these new Limited Edition Ritz intrigued me. Caramelized Onion? I LOVE ONION. All of my cooking typically begins with onion. And there is nothing better than caramelized onions on a burger…in fact….

…Limited Edition Caramelized Onion Ritz Crackers even suggests it on the back! I do think it’s sort of comical that Nabisco wants you to make tiny tiny sliders to eat on these Ritz Crackers. I’ll stick to White Castle, thanks.

Limited Edition Caramelized Onion Ritz Crackers have about 18 calories a cracker, which means if you’re like me and can crush a SLEEVE of Ritz in one sitting, you’re due for a 500+ calories meal of buttery onion-y crackers. I’m not complaining, just sayin’. Pass the sleeve, please…

Limited Edition Caramelized Onion Ritz Crackers have small bits of onion embedded into the surface of the cracker itself. As soon as I opened the sleeve, I could smell some distinct onion smell – almost like sniffing a tub of French Onion dip. The Ritz cracker seemed standard, otherwise – like buttery and flaky.

I munched on a few (sleeves) of these Limited Edition Caramelized Onion Ritz Crackers, and I have to admit, I wasn’t sure what to think. To start off with, these are not caramelized onion FLAVOR, per se – like, these aren’t designed to be a flavored snack like when you get Buffalo Wing flavored Wheat Thins or something. These aren’t covered with flavor powder, at all. So my first reaction was kind of “meh.”

But I have to be honest, as I ate more of these, I REALLY enjoyed them. For one, these tasted more sophisticated – they were still buttery, but these Ritz didn’t appear to have much salt. Instead, the little bits of embedded onion and whatever natural flavor they added just made these crackers EMIT a deep onion flavor. Like, actual onion, caramlized onion, flavor, NOT sour cream and onion flavor.

It wasn’t SUPER strong on the tongue, but as I chewed the crackers and breathed in and out of my mouth and nose, I could TASTE the onion flavor there, and it actually seemed pretty strong. As I chewed each cracker, onion-y air burst into my mouth, if that makes sense. The flavor I could taste in my mouth air seemed like french onion dip…very VERY muted, but definitely spot on in terms of what flavor was there.

The aftertaste in my mouth was distinctly buttery and onion-y. All in all, if that’s what Ritz was going for, these were REALLY good. So, if you’re looking for a cracker that tastes like a chip with STRONG flavors – these will not be for you. But, if you’re looking for a cracker that does carry a LOT of flavor, but it’s more subtle and in the background, this is IT.